For There Was One

Chapter 1: Wolf Moon (or Ouch! That Hurt!)

Rosalind McCall sighed, stretching out her limbs and listening to the sounds of her brother moving around doing his nightly exercises. Scott had been working out and practising all school break to try and get to play on the field in Beacon Hills High School's Lacrosse team. It wasn't that her brother was bad, he was in fact quite good at the sport, but Rose occasionally got the impression that Coach Finstock didn't want to have to deal with Scott's asthma.

When Scott finished up for the night, Rose decided she had had enough of last-minute studying and would turn in. It was alright for her brother, only a sophomore, but she was convinced senior year was designed to kill off students before they could clog up the higher education system. It might have been that she had a job, nothing special, just stacking supermarket shelves, and had also taken on volunteering at the hospital, which would look good when applying for further study or a job, both of which took up a decent amount of her time. Rose wasn't willing to give up either of those, despite the potential effect they could have on her studies. Although her mum assured her that her work as a nurse supported them just fine, both Rose and Scott had gotten jobs to help out.

The volunteering at the hospital was something she enjoyed. The location was convenient for transportation, as the family only had the one car, and her mum had put in a good word for her. Originally it had just been going around with the food and tea trolleys, but when another volunteer had moved town, Rose had been asked if she would take on their job. So for 8 months now, she had been spending a little time each week with the patients in the long term care facility of Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital.

Some patients were easier than others. One elderly lady, Mrs Margaret 'call me Peg, dear' Goodall, liked the chance to just talk at someone and tell stories. Janice Dole was deaf as a post but loved doing puzzles with her. While twenty-two year old Tony White, who had been paralysed waist down in the same car accident that had killed his parents, was usually in an understandably bad mood, stuck there until arrangements could be made. And, as bad as it sounded, Peter Hale was probably her favourite visit. Almost completely catatonic, but according to doctors making very slow, minute improvements, she sometimes used the visits as an opportunity to purge. Just sit with him and rant about whatever was bothering her that week.

~{•.•}~

What was bothering right now however, was the yell of what sounded like Scott's best friend, Stiles Stilinski. Rose sighed again, trudging down the stairs to see what the fuss was about, or at least tell the boys to pipe down a little so she could sleep. Stepping out the front door onto the veranda in her pyjamas, Rose heard the end of Stiles' excited sentences,

"-a body in the woods." What?!

"A dead body?" came the familiar sound of her brother.

"No, a body of water. Yes, dumbass! It's a dead body!" It was always fun to hear Stiles' sarcasm when directed at someone else.

"You mean like murdered?"

"Nobody knows yet. It was a girl, probably in her twenties..."

"Hold on," Scott said with a hint of confusion, "if they found the body, then what are they looking for?"

"That's the best part..." Stiles grinned excitedly. "They only found a half! We're going."

"Whoa, hold up," Rose cut in from where she was leaning against the wall of the house and making the oblivious pair jump. "I thought Scott was the idiot for asking what type of body it was, now I see it's you", she pointed at Stiles, "for this idiotic plan."

"Oh, come on Rose," Stiles whined. Rose shook her head.

"No. Going into the preserve looking for half a body when the one that did it might still be out there? Not a good idea."